Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

S.S. Kiel, a 4494 gross ton freighter, was built in
1900 at Flensburg, Germany. In 1914 she took refuge in a U.S.
port after the outbreak of World War I made the high seas unsafe
for German commercial shipping. Seized when the United States
entered the conflict in April 1917, she was turned over to the
Navy in May of that year, refitted at the Charleston Navy Yard,
South Carolina, and placed in commission in August as USS Camden
(with registry ID # 3143 being assigned later). Between September
1917 and April 1918 she was mainly employed carrying coal between
the British Isles and France, but also made trans-Atlantic voyages.

Camden was decommissioned early in May 1918 at the Philadelphia
Navy Yard, Pennsylvania, and began conversion to a submarine tender.
She returned to commissioned service in February 1919 and was
assigned to the Atlantic Fleet Submarine Flotilla as flagship
and tender. In July 1920, when the Navy formally implemented its
hull number system, she was designated AS-6. From 1921 to 1923
Camden tended submarines on the West Coast, then returned
to the Atlantic and Caribbean areas to perform the same service.
She was refitted with a single smokestack (replacing her original
two funnels) in the mid-1920s and continued on active duty until
May 1931, when she was again decommissioned at Philadelphia.

In September 1940 Camden was redesignated IX-42 and
towed to New York, where she was used as a floating barracks to
house some of the great number of Sailors stationed at the Navy
Yard and other local facilities. No longer needed after the end
of the conflict, USS Camden was sold in October 1946.

This page features all the views we have concerning USS
Camden in 1917, and provides links to later images related
to her after conversion to a submarine tender.

To the best of our knowledge, the pictures referenced here
are all in the Public Domain, and can therefore be freely downloaded
and used for any purpose.

Some images linked from this page may bear obsolete credit lines
citing the organization name: "Naval Historical Center".
Effective 1 December 2008 the name should be cited as: "Naval
History and Heritage Command".